Apple Inc.

Michael Steven Mackovitch

Dominic Benjamin Giampaolo

John Garvey

Peter J Rutenbar

Representative embodiments set forth herein disclose techniques for implementing dynamic file system volumes that can share storage space with other file system (FS) volumes within the same partition/storage device. According to some embodiments, techniques are disclosed for establishing an FS volume within a container. According to other embodiments, techniques are disclosed for handling input/output (I/O) requests across different FS volumes. According to yet other embodiments, techniques are disclosed for efficiently establishing, within a storage device, an FS volume from an image of the FS volume.

Systems and methods for implementing dynamic file systems

Disclosed herein is a technique for merging a batch of intermediate trees into a base tree stored in a storage device. The batch of intermediate trees is stored in a storage device and each intermediate tree in the batch represents a tree that was previously moved from memory to the storage device. When the number of intermediate trees in the batch satisfies a threshold, the batch of intermediate trees is collectively merged into the base tree within the storage device.

System and method for maintaining a multi-level data structure

The embodiments set forth techniques for generating snapshots of file system volumes without requiring the implementation of reference counts. A file system can manage snapshot identifiers (IDs) within an object map that corresponds to the file system volume, where each snapshot ID represents a different existing snapshot of the file system volume. A new snapshot can be generated simply by (1) establishing a new snapshot ID based on a current transaction ID managed for the file system volume, and (2) closing the current transaction ID and generating a new current transaction ID. In turn, the new current transaction ID is assigned as a transaction ID within mapping entries that are established/updated after the snapshot is established. In this manner, the transaction ID assigned to each mapping entry can be analyzed against the snapshot IDs to determine the snapshots (if any) to which the mapping entry corresponds.

Systems and methods for managing snapshots of a file system volume

Methods and apparatuses for data protection against corrupted write operations. In one embodiment, a technique of crash protection uses an atomically updated global transaction indicator to switch a set of data structures from one set of versions to another set. In one embodiment, the storage space for multiple versions of a data structure is allocated at the time the data structure is created on the storage device so that the multiple versions of the data structure can be kept close by. Between two consistent points, some data structures are modified to create new versions without changing the corresponding previous versions; and unmodified data structures are not copied. At a consistent point, the global transaction indicator is updated to indicate a set of consistent versions of the data structures, such as metadata of a file system.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Michael Steven Mackovitch